Al-Ḥijr 15:90

The issue

Some Islamic scholars offer these speculations regarding the identity of al-muqtasimīna (“the dividers”; Palmer trans.“the separatists”):

The dividers are those who fanned out along the roads of Mecca during special occasions, e.g., market days, to campaign against Muhammad. It is said that their number was about forty by some and sixteen by others. They warned people concerning the call of Muhammad, saying that he was a magician, a diviner, or a poet.

The dividers are a group of the Quraysh that divided the Qur’ān into literary genres, calling parts of it poetry, part magic, part divination, and part myths of the ancients.

The dividers are those Jews and Christians who believed in some parts of the Qur’ān and misbelieved in the rest.

The dividers are those who believed in part of the Qur’ān and misbelieved in the rest. No other specifics are given concerning their identity.

The dividers are the People of the Book who were given this description because some of them said, in ridiculing the Qur’ān, “This sura is mine,” while others said, “This is mine”.

The dividers are Šāliģ’s people, who vowed to attack him by night, but the angels threw stones at them and killed them, based on one of the opinions. With this explanation, the word muqtasimīna would have come from al-qasamu (“to vow”) and not from al-qisma (“to divide”).

These explanations reflect the uncertainty concerning the identity of the dividers. It is noteworthy that Muslim commentators follow the aforementioned opinions 3, 4, and 5 concerning the partitioning of the Qur’ān.

This view, unfortunately, does not take into consideration that Q 15 is Meccan when the majority of the Qur’ān was not yet revealed and that the whole compilation took place after the death of Muhammad.